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Mubarak-era politicians vying for speaker's role

July 6, 2014 at 2:49 pm

Mubarak-era politicians are currently vying for the speaker’s role in the upcoming Egyptian parliament, Al-Mesryoon media has learnt. Both Mubarak’s ex-foreign minister Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafik, the disgraced president’s final prime minister, are competing behind closed doors to win the speaker’s position.

According to sources in the National Movement Party, led by Shafik, he instructed his party to withdraw from the electoral alliance formed to run in the parliamentary elections. Moussa has opted to remain in the Al-Wafd Al-Gadid Alliance, led by Al-Wafd Party’s chairman Sayed Al-Badawy.

According to Yehia Qadri, a founding member of Shafik’s party, there was an alliance between Moussa and Shafik prior to the presidential elections, but “it soon collapsed due to Moussa’s desire to lead and chair the upcoming parliament”. Shafik asked his party to create a new alliance away from Moussa, Qadri claimed.

Concerning Shafik’s candidacy as speaker, Qadri said: “There are different opinions on this matter. Some members of the party think he should top one of the electoral lists, while others, including Shafik himself, believe it would be better for him not to run, because he is a prominent figure who should distance himself from such conflicts.”